Trailer Trash (3/8/13)

Volume 39: Les aventures du Wolfpack – Troisième partie

The Hangover Part III

Dir: Todd Phillips – Planned release date: May 24

From the second that The Hangover made a gazillion dollars back in 2009, it was inevitable that it would be followed by a minimum of two sequels. The first came in 2011, and most agreed that it was an uninspired retread the likes of which sequels hadn’t seen since Home Alone: Lost in New York. It still made more money than I will ever see in my life, but the good news is that going into the unavoidable third installment, Todd Phillips and company seem to have somewhat got the message. It’s still wholly familiar territory, but at the very least it doesn’t seem to entirely revolve around our main trio of misfits passing out and then piecing things back together the next day and getting to the wedding on time. Then again, who knows? This preview doesn’t give us a whole lot of details plot-wise, but it does give us plenty of Galifianakis shenanigans, including a slightly over-the-top setpiece involving highway giraffe decapitation. Then again, coming into today I didn’t think I’d ever get the opportunity to type the phrase “highway giraffe decapitation,” so you can’t exactly accuse these fellows of lacking creativity. If anything, The Hangover Part III looks more like what I want out of a Hangover sequel. There are equal reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic. I will say that the poster made me giggle, so there’s that.

Iron Man 3

Dir: Shane Black – Planned release date: May 3

When last we got a look at the forthcoming Iron Man 3, the only thing we really knew is that Tony Stark was awful melancholy all of a sudden, and that Asian Ben Kingsley was one of the primary reasons. Now this new trailer reveals that insomnia also comes into play, though it seems Asian Ben Kingsley is being a bit of a bother to just about everyone. I’m a little weary of the tone getting too serious here—part of the fun of Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man is that he doesn’t take things too seriously—but at the very least it seems Iron Man 3 has one crucial thing that its predecessor didn’t have: a reason to exist. Now that the series is out of the shadow of The Avengers, it actually has room to go tell its own story. At the very least, this doesn’t look like a movie that’s going to be satisfied treading water. That alone is an improvement.

Much Ado About Nothing

Dir: Joss Whedon – Planned release date: June 7

I’m close to positive that Joss Whedon is the only person on Earth who would follow up a movie like The Avengers with a no-budget, black-and-white adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing that was filmed entirely at his own house. On top of that, it basically just stars his friends. But if there’s anyone that can pull off a doodle like this, it’s Whedon, and early reports from Toronto seem to confirm that he did just that. There’s probably nothing revelatory to be found here, but it’s somewhat reassuring that he finds time to do something like this in between making the biggest film of 2012 and the upcoming SHIELD television series. Also: more Clark Gregg. That is only a positive thing.

After Earth

Dir: M. Night Shyamalan – Planned release date: June 7

One of the most fascinating things about the marketing campaign for After Earth is that it seems to be going out of its way to keep audiences from discovering who the film’s director is. It’s amazing how quickly M. Night Shyamalan’s name has become toxic, and it’s never more evident than here. The real attraction, they’d like you to know, are the two Smiths at the film’s center: Will and Jaden. I suppose that’s good enough, but there are moments in this trailer that have me slightly worried. Like, The Last Airbender levels of worried. I would have thought we learned our lesson that the last thing Shyamalan needs is a buttload of money and special effects, and some of the line readings in this preview seem to recall what made that movie so interminable. For one reason or another, he just has a complete inability to direct expository dialogue. I hope the CGI action sequences and Smith clan are enough to overshadow his increasingly obvious shortcomings, but there’s a real stink on this trailer that I can’t quite ignore.

Frances Ha

Dir: Noah Baumbach – Planned release date: May 17

Apparently filming low-budget comedies in digital black-and-white is all the rage these days, and for a second piece of evidence I give you Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha. This is his first film since 2010’s frustrating Greenberg—unless you count his work writing Madagascar 3—and he seems to be reacting to that film the way many artist-types do after their first encounter with the mainstream: running the other way as far as possible. Not that this movie seems so unconventional, but I’m not sure there’s a huge market out there for black-and-white movies about Greta Gerwig going around the world and annoying people with her quirky charms. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested. On the contrary, this trailer actually intrigues me much more than anything else I’ve seen or heard about it. Even still, this is probably one of those movies where you’re either in or you’re out based solely on the people involved. I know I’m in.